What I am about to share is bound to be controversial, but I’m going to share it anyway. The rule of Equivalent Expressions may give us a clue as to the identity of the Two Witnesses in the book of Revelation. How is that, you ask? Look and see…
The Two Witnesses
I will give power to [...]
Continue reading about Lost Wisdom of the Sages Part II: An Equivalent Expression, Follow Up 2
Lets consider these two dissimilar passages: one passage from the book of Numbers, the other from the book of Revelation. We’ll then use the rule of Equivalence of Expressions to gain deeper understanding of the excerpted passages.
Continue reading about Lost Wisdom of the Sages Part II: An Equivalent Expression, Follow Up 1
One of the wonderful things about the Scriptures which is often hidden from the view many Bible students its wonderful interconnectedness. In our busy day-to-day lives we often neglect our spiritual responsibility to pray and to study the scriptures. Due to the constraints on our time, we often study small passages alone or in groups. This, as much as anything else causes us to think of scripture in discrete chunks: a verse here, a short easy to remember passage there, and so on. But the Scriptures where not meant to be read that way!
Continue reading about Lost Wisdom of the Sages Part II: An Equivalent Expression (G’zerah Shavah)
Yeshua (Jesus) used Light and Heavy argumentation many times. Interestingly, the ancient sages taught that two forms of Light and Heavy argument exist. In some cases the argument is explicit, clear, and inescapably obvious. In other cases, the Light and Heavy argumentation is only implied.
Continue reading about Lost Wisdom of the Sages Part I: Light and Heavy, Follow-Up 2
The medieval French Rabbi Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki (Rashi) held that there where ten Light and Heavy arguments in the Hebrew Scriptures. For those of you who where curious as to their location, you’re in luck:
Continue reading about Lost Wisdom of the Sages Part I: Light and Heavy, Follow-Up 1
With the explosion of Bible translations (some of which are better than others) and the rise in truly wonderful tools to use in the course of the study of the Scriptures it seems that we must know more about the Bible than ever before. While it’s true that we have information that those who came before us did not (modern archaeology in general, and Dead Sea Scrolls a bit more specifically, for example) few genuine students of the scripture can escape the sinking feeling deep inside their guts: “You’ve lost something” it whispers. And you know what, it’s right. We absolutely have. In fact, we’ve lost a lot of things…
Continue reading about Lost Wisdom of the Sages Part I: Light and Heavy
For a long time now, there has been an undercurrent of hatred directed toward Christians in the public square. Often it has taken the form of frivolous (and might I say truly preposterous) litigation between parties. Our National motto, “In God we trust…
Continue reading about You’ve Forgotten… How Much You’re Hated
Many of the things Yeshua (Jesus) said are profound in nature. Yet, few of us take the time to dig into the richness of the meaning of of the parables, metaphors, and other figures of speech used by Yeshua [Jesus] in scripture. This is unfortunately causes many Bible students (including this one at times) to [...]
Continue reading about The Birth of Jesus Part I: “The Light of the World”
Recently, I was half-asleep watching a talking-head program when a sort piece was covered which awakened me from my daze: three SUVs set atop a church alter-area. Of all the things I was expecting to see on my television that evening, that imagery did not make the list. The news analyst went on to relate [...]